Bouldering with friends

Fitbit Ace for the kid

Hen is so excited about the arrival of his new Fitbit that he's decided to go for a jog around the park. The boy with never-ending energy who barely registers on the weight growth chart is out jogging. I'm jealous of his motivation to move. He had it before the watch but now it's been kicked up a notch.

The Amazing Fitbit One

I have had this little device for less than 24 hours and already I am quite smitten. Who would have thunk I'd be in love with a tracker that is constantly reminding me I haven't walked enough steps, I'm eating too much, and I really, really need to drink more water? (Clearly a rhetorical question but I'll answer anyway - Not me.)

Fitbit is a company that has an attractive line of really cool trackers to keep you in the know about your fitness stats, sleep habits, and food log (if you so choose). It is awesome. I got it yesterday in the late afternoon/early evening so I don't have great fitness stats for yesterday but I used it during sleep last night and learned this...

wait for it...

there's a graph...

you're totally going to want to see this...

My sleep efficiency was 98%, yo!

It only took me 6 minutes to fall asleep! 

I actually slept 7hrs and 9 min!

But wait, there's more...

When I check out my dashboard, I can see all sorts of info including what you see above (obviously), and other things like an activity graph, food plan, weight, floors, friends, and my very active minutes. It's customizable so you can see or not see whatever makes you happy.

Oh, and because I got my walking out of the way first thing this morning, I've already earned badges. The goal is 10,000 steps per day for now. I'd have to go up another 15 flights of stairs to get my next badge, which means I may just chase Hen around the building after he gets home from school. I'm definitely motivated (for right now) by badges and the novelty of winning badges and by seeing my efforts in graph form. My hope is that by the time the novelty wears off and the earning of badges and viewing of numbers has less satisfaction, I'll have developed a routine that has other benefits that inspire me to continue to be a healthier person.

Many thanks to Tanya for introducing me to this gadget. She is currently using and loving the Fitbit Force. If I ever decide to share my profile, we can totally be fitness tracking buddies.

We are slaves to our own desires

This is a very interesting article about how habits are formed, intentionally or otherwise. I saw myself in this quote:

“If you regularly eat chips while sitting on the couch, after a while, seeing the couch will automatically prompt you to reach for the Doritos. These associations are sometimes so strong that you have to replace the couch with a wooden chair for a diet to succeed.”

You know those Carl's Jr. commercials that intone "burger, fries, coke" over and over? I'm "couch, tv, chips"; "dinner, candy"; "beer, nuts"; "wine, chocolate". Sigh.

The perfect exercise

When I woke up this morning, Darr's cousin Amanda was on her way outside to shovel the snow off the driveway. I offered to help. And after about a half an hour of vigorous snow removal I conclude this is the perfect exercise. It is relatively low impact, no jarring impact on your joints. You use your core muscles to keep you balanced on the icy snow at the same time you throw the snow off the driveway, you use your legs and arms to push the snow, and you use your back and arm muscles to heave the snow over the snowbank. It's the most excellent combination of cardio and weight-training I've found to date. And because digging your car out of the snow is a necessity if you want to keep the job that allows you to pay your mortgage, that's all the motivation you need.

I do have a pic of our finished work but I'll have to wait until I return home to post it. Also, men are funny. My uncle-in-law (Darr's dad's brother) and Darr's dad both poked their heads out to watch us women shoveling the snow and as we neared the very end of our project, Darr's uncle Ron shouts out to us something like, "Don't worry about that, girls. Come on in. We'll finish it up." Um, what? And take all of the glory from my first snow shoveling experience? I don't think so. I'm proud to say Amanda and I completed the driveway ourselves. (Nicely done, Amanda*.)

*Not to be confused with Barry Manilow's "Mandy".

We go up, we come down

Darr and I headed over to The Circuit Gym this evening for our first attempt at bouldering action. It totally rocks! I can't express how much fun it was. Tough but fun. We worked on the B and 1 level climbs and sort of stumbled into the 2 level climbs when we couldn't find the right path. I don't even have enough of the lingo down to write about it intelligently. The gist is that you go up and you come down. Sometimes you come down measured and controlled, other times you just let go and try not to hit the wall as you fall. The place is totally cool, with lots of areas for inexperienced folks like us. Darr was able to successfully complete this one over-the-top climb three times before I could heave my butt up over the ledge and onto the top. The gym was kind enough to provide a ladder for climbers to use to get down. (Gym people, we thank you for the ladder.) We plan on taking the intro class to learn some of the techniques climbers use so we have a better understanding of what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to do it. For my friend Jess - we're totally going here next time you're in town. :)

What the hell is bouldering anyway?

Darr and I are checking into gyms and I came across The Circuit Gym right across the river, a mere five minutes from our condo. My friend Jessica is a rock climber/boulderer (is that a word?) and from checking out her photos, I've learned that much of this involves holding your weight with your fingers and toes, which works fine for her, she's tiny. I'm not, hence the conversation that took place in the previous blog entry. It should be noted that losing 15 pounds isn't going to get me anywhere near the tiny size but it would put 15 pounds less pressure on my poor fingers and toes.

Weight conversation

Christie: I'll try bouldering with you when I lose 15 pounds.
Darren: Well, hurry up and lose 15 pounds.
Darren: Don't tell people I said that.

No excuses for not getting my butt back on the treadmill

I spent all day yesterday re-arranging the furniture in our bedroom to make room for an additional piece (i.e., the treadmill). What I realized early on is that I will not, am physically unable to, exercise on the treadmill when Darr's in his office. For one, I sweat buckets, which is totally unsexy and not cool. And B, after about thirty minutes of jogging my pits produce a smell worse than rotting deer carcass. Thirdly, I feel like a large schlump when I'm on the treadmill and reduce my pace and/or decrease the incline. Finally, it's all in my head but I can't help but feel he's tracking my progress, which I hate even though he's not actually tracking anything because he's focused on work, not on my treadmill experience. None of that matters now because as of yesterday early evening, the treadmill has been transported from his office into our bedroom. Now I have zero excuses for not getting my butt back on the treadmill and training for the half marathon that is looming out there in the future. There better be a cool finisher's necklace from Tiffany's at the end of this race like there was last time or I'm gonna be pissed.

Nike+iPod

Two of my favorite companies, Apple and Nike, are joining forces to bring the world something new and exciting - shoes that track workout information and then relay that information to the iPod nano. Okay, so I don't have an iPod nano - I'm still back in the days of my pink mini iPod - but it's really cool to know this capability exists. I slap on my Nikes, plug in my soon-to-be-purchased iPod nano (perhaps Darr will let me borrow his?), hit the pavement, and wonderous things magically happen. And when I write "magically happen" I actually mean that, after purchasing the Nike+iPod Sport Kit and using it appropriately, the sensor on my shoes will measure my activity (miles, pace, etc.) and wirelessly transfer the info to the receiver on the nano. How cool is that?! The iPod becomes my very own personal trainer. And, Apple is soon going to introduce a Nike section in iTunes that will have preset music perfect for workouts. Plus, the folks at Apple have added the Power Song Activation switch, for those moments you need that one specific song to get you through a particularly challenging section of a run. What will these clever bastards think of next, eh?